The annual U.S. News and World Report rankings are out today.

UW-Madison was ranked 39th in the "Best National Universities" category, tied with the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. That's a drop of four spots from last year, when the school was ranked 35th.

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, was ranked 61st, tied with four other schools.

Among public universities, UW-Madison and the University of Illinois were tied in the ninth spot.

The rankings are based on factors like graduation and retention rates, peer evaluations, student to faculty ratio, student ACT/SAT scores, and more.

UW-Madison's undergraduate engineering and business programs were also noteworthy. Engineering was tied for 12th best overall and business tied for 13th.

Several UW-Madison programs were highlighted in the "programs to look for" category. The study abroad program, undergraduate research/creative projects, and learning communities were all recognized.

Read the On Campus blog: www.madison.com/wsj/blogs/oncampus